A high-school move programme may help children with ADHD plan their time

The study

1. 01

   Who took part

   70 families with a child who has ADHD. The children averaged about 12 years old, and 49 were boys. All of them took ADHD medicine, and most parents had studied after high school.

2. 02

   What they did

   Families were put into two groups by chance. One group had 12 group meetings for children and parents, every two weeks, plus mentoring at home. The other group got usual help: checks on medicine by the family doctor and 30% extra time on school exams.

3. 03

   What happened

   Parents said the programme group did better at planning time. They also said it did better at keeping materials in order. For materials, the gap was bigger for children with more trouble paying attention. Parental stress, parents' low mood, sex and other diagnoses did not change the effect much.

What the study found

1. Helped

   Children in the programme improved more at planning their time, parents said, than children who got usual help.

   • Action: Take a time-management coursetested
   • Action: Split a big task into piecestested
   • Rule: Practise with a groupused

   Small randomised trial of 70 children with ADHD and their parents · vs children who got usual help · they rated themselves

2. Helped

   Children in the programme also kept their things tidy better, parents said, than children who got usual help.

   • Action: Organise your materialstested
   • Rule: Practise with a groupused

   Small randomised trial of 70 children with ADHD and their parents · vs children who got usual help · they rated themselves

Source